And we continue at one oh five in the afternoon on the John Phillips Show, Mister Randy wangs in Culver City.
John ballots are still being counted in the city of Los Angeles, but right now it sure looks like Spencer Pratt is advancing to the November runoff along with everybody's favorite D dropper.
And when the.
World comes in ten short days, the world will be here for the world come, and we're gonna show them the magic of Los Angeles. Well, she may drop the D, but Tom Steyer doesn't.
I'm Tom Steyer.
I'm about to ride the tea. You better hope he gets more votes. So we're gonna have no reason to play that. Oh it'll be gratuitous, but we're gonna continue to play it for sure. Eight hundred two two two five two two two is a telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is the publisher So Doesitmatter dot Com, which covers
California politics. If you log on and subscribe, they'll send it right to your email box and you'll be able to check out John's take each and every morning on California Politics. You can get them online at Sodoesitmatter dot com. John Fleischmann, Welcome.
John, Thank you for having me back on the show for another opportunity to chronicle the burning of Rome.
Well, let's start with the governor's race because and you always have to add this caveat because we take over a month to count all the ballots here in North Korea. But as of now, it appears that Steve Hilton is in the driver's seat in first place, with Javier Bessera, the former Attorney general and second place, and Tom Steyer finishing out of the money just under twenty percent in third place. What do you make of that result?
Well, I mean the first thing I would tell you is now having I'm wonky enough that I spent some time with a calculator and figuring things out, and these results are not going to change. There is no way, with even several remaining million ballots to be counted, that the numbers will change enough to change the outcome. So this is going to be a Steve Hilton versus Bessarah showdown.
And so what you've got is Besserah is going to have to spend the fall or he should be spending the fall defending Gavin Newsom's record, because he really, of all of the Democrats running kind of ran on the hey, I will be the least attruptive transition from Gavin Newsom to Xavier Bessera and it'll all be good, right, That was his pitch. So he owns everything. And of course Newsom gets what he wants, because what he didn't want was a new person running for governor and becoming governor
in California. That would be attacking his record while he's busy running for president. So we have Steve Hilton, who's extraordinarily articulate and hard charging focus on Bessara in the Fall on his record, and of course Bassara will just respond by saying, but Trump, Trump, Trump Trump. And it remains to be seen whether or not the prop fifty playbook from last fall can repeat itself where the Democrats never have to talk about all of their failures because
all they talk about is Donald Trump. That's possible, you know, I don't know, but that's that's kind of the setup that we have. And then you know, you'd appreciate this, John, because you study politics like I do, there's a whole lot more Democrats than Republicans in California. So not only does Steve Hilton have to do everything right, but Bessarah
is going to have to take a fall. He's going to have to stumble, and you know, I know you've talked about it plenty on your show, but we can talk a little bit about the legal issues that are just right tendential to him with his own with the scheme to pay his own chief of staff, more money out of nonprofit funds and all of that. But but the governor's race is set, and I think it's going to be a vibrant one. It's going to be an interesting one. But we are a blue state, so something's
got to happen. But the outcome is pretty predictable.
My theory, and maybe you disagree, I don't know, is that the Democrats are going to run Javier Bessera as the California Joe Biden, and they're going to try to turn him into a generic Democrat and put him in the basement and put him on TV as little as possible, put him in front of small, friendly audiences. Don't let him go on TV often. If you do, just put them on MSNBC or something like that every so often to just remind people that he's there. But you don't
want him sitting down on Meet the Press. You do not want him debating Steve Hilton more than once. You do not want him out there in a position where he exposes himself to liability if something goes haywire. And the way you prevent that from happening is you just lock him down at home.
I agree with you one hundred percent. You're totally right. There's nothing to gain and everything to lose by having Sarah out there on the campaign trail, giving speeches and
becoming the object. As a matter of fact, I think the plan will be where he will do lots of quiet private events while his public employee union friends start running the whole Trump's Best Friend ad campaign against against you know, Steve Hilton, because they would like to stop Hilton at the roughly forty percent mark, which is the high point if all the Republicans are unified him once again.
This turnout model so far as kind of proving that because if you take the numbers that currently exist for Hilton and add in the numbers that Beyonco got, it's right around forty percent, which has always been the cap. Of course, not forty percent of the House seats now, but forty percent of the voters in California really would
like to see a significant change. And then you know it's all these undecided voters, and right now anyways, the president is particularly unpopular with that group, so you can imagine that they will. You know, it's not very hard to tie Steve Hilton to the President, who just as of yesterday was on truth Social saying I need Steve Hilton, right. It's kind of like Steve Hilton used the Trump endorsement
very effectively to become the Republican nominee. But you know, in for a penny, in for a pound, right, he is now the Trump guy.
If you are Steve Hilton, what do you do to lure Javier Bessera out of the basement and get him in debate two and get him to show up for interviews where people will challenge him, and get him in front of large audiences. How do you make that happen?
I mean so intuitively, since you don't prep your guests with your questions, I would say a couple things first and foremost. If I'm Steve Hilton. I'm going straight into doing public events in the Hispanic dominated areas of Los Angeles, taking it right to him so that it's it's it's painfully obvious that he's avoiding Hilton, and Hilton takes his
message right there. And then, of course, you know, Hilton needs to and all of Hilton sergates need to go on all the media shows and say I'm here, I'm available, and it's you know, it's kind of like the equivalent back in the day. Remember the milk carton ad right, Where's where's you know, you can the milk carton with you know, where's Javier?
Right?
You've got to You've got to just roll out a constant message of this guy has gone a wall. He's nowhere to be seen. As a matter of fact, we hear more from Gavin Newsom, the outgoing governor, then we hear from the guy that is going to be the next governor of California or wants to be the next governor California. So I think those are the two things that immediately.
Come to mind.
Do you have a great idea? You always have a good idea.
I would just appeal to his ego and his narcissism, and I would put stories out there that his team doesn't trust him and that's why they want to keep him locked up in the basement. And I would try to create conflict between him and his team so that he forces himself out there. That's what the Democrats do to Trump, and it seems to work on a regular
basis with him. But Javier Bessera, don't forget, is not going to have his kitchen cabinet running this race because one of them is cutting a deal with the Feds, the other ones in the process of cutting a deal with the Feds, the third one's in trouble, and he's going to have arranged marriages with all of these new consultants and strategists that he may or may not trust himself.
I would try to create conflict between the two of them and make it seem like they treat him like he's an infant, and they keep them locked up because they think he's going to have a gaff.
Well, and then I think, on top of it, I think another way to lure him out. You could tell me, I mean, I could see the pros and the constant this is put the president on him. Just start calling him. Chicken besserah right, and it's the president of the United States. By the way, what's going on in California. Chicken Besara won't debate, Chicken Bessera won't come out right. You know. The downside is it's more time. I don't think you can tie Hilton to Trump any more than.
He will be.
That's already done anyway, So you may as well use the president to really humiliate, you know, because you can see it now. Gavin Newsom will be on He's no Chicken, and then Gavin newsomill be oh no, then why are you the one talking to me instead of the guy that wants your job?
Right?
You could just kind of play it out that way. So that's just another idea.
Let's shift gears here and talk about Katie Porter because her support just collapsed. I'm looking at the Secretary of State's website right now. She's currently sitting at four point six percent, which is lower than what she had been pulling almost the entire way through the election. It looks like Democrats who planned on supporting her at the last minute got cold feet and decided to jump to another can because her support just evaporated.
Well, you're not.
You're not. You're not.
Kid.
It's kind of funny. I woke up this morning to the fact that a local Republican volunteer happened to be last night at a bar in Newport Beach. And who is sitting at a table in the bar in Newport Beach with a couple of people cool in her heels but Katie Porter, who I guess needed to tie on a stiff one after a after losing her campaign. She you know what, I think she she thought she was
going to be the next Elizabeth Warren. And now now you just have to feel bad for a bunch of law school students at the UCI Law School who are all going to hear her preach to them about how she would have run America. It's going to be. I mean, pro tip if you're an incoming student that you see hervine avoid Professor Porter's class. I think she's just gonna all all the students in there are just going to suffer horribly from her feelings of inadequacy.
It's going to be. I think she's going to be one of these people that never goes away. She's going to spend the rest of her life running for office. She's going to run for attorney general or something else. Next time around, she'll run against Todd Spitzer for DA of Orange County. I don't think she's ever going to leave public life.
I agree with that. You know, right now, she's going to be like all upset because Dave Min, who taught at the law school, is now sitting in quote her congressional seat while she's stuck back at the law school and he's not going anywhere anytime soon because Prop fifty drew him a district that is very difficult. I mean, Jenny ray LaRue, who ran for governor, is now the
nominee against Dave Min. But for her to be successful, Republicans in Congress have to expand the playing field, and it's going to take a lot for them to go after she's, you know, and not just defend the one
they have. But yeah, I could see her run for county supervisor in a few years, or you know, you you know, you just you know, maybe she'll sit around and burn incense and hope that somehow Elizabeth Warren will become a cabinet secretary in somebody's administration so she can get appointed and you know, be yell cusswords with people that aren't doing.
The job right. Matt Mayhan. It was the darling of Silicon Valley also saw his support evaporate. He did four point one percent according to the last posted numbers from the Secretary of State. I felt like Silicon Valley played this all wrong, Matt Mayhan. I get it was their number one choice. He's from San Jose, They're familiar with him, They're happy with his performance as mayor. However, at a certain point it became obvious that it just wasn't working out.
If they took some of that money and used it to uplift via Ragosa and uplift Bianco, maybe you would have gotten two Republicans onto the November ballot, and that could have been their plan B. But they never cut bait on him. They stuck with him the entire time, even when it became obvious that it just wasn't going to happen.
You know, I think that's a good point. And I also think I heard somebody else make this observation last night, and I think I kind of agree with that. I think one of I mean, I always felt there were two reasons why Mayheon did not really catch fire. One of which is that he has all the charisma of oatmeal without the brown sugar. Right, So that's that's item
number one. But then the second point is I think that there is a growing sense of apprehension on the right end of the left of big tech and AI and chat bots and what is that all going to mean? And I think there's a group of people that are like, I don't know who I want for governor, but that guy's bought and paid for by big tech, and I don't want to have somebody who's the big tech guy being our governor. I think that factors into it as well.
Either way. You know, he, like Katie Porter, isn't going anywhere, right, He'll go back to San Jose and consider Prossessor Sam Lecardo, the former mayor of San Jose, is now squatting on the House seat, so there's really no place for him to run for Congress. So I'm sure he'll be back. We'll see him somewhere doing something and maybe I don't know, if they have termlinits in San Jose, maybe he'll just
stay the mayor there for a while. But you know, unless that guy can go to Charms School, unless that guy can figure out, you know, how to actually elevate his pulse above forty on a stage. I don't think that guy's ready for prime time because well, I think that there is a sense of voters that you want somebody who's a sure, steady hand. Oh my god, you don't want somebody who puts you to sleep.
No, And I also think part of his problem was that he didn't look like a governor. But Sarah looks like a governor Mayhand in person. At least when I saw him at one of the debates, he looked like a teenager. He looked like he was writing that sweet spot for the Lincoln Project guys. And I think that people look at that and they just don't see a governor, and that's part of his problem.
Yeah, I agree with that completely. And so again, this is one of those guys. His candidacy, you know, sounded great policy wise to a bunch of wealthy people, and
they wanted to run him like a tech startup. And you know, the bad news for Mayheon is is he got the people invested in him are the kind of people that like, well, I guess that investment didn't pay off and they're onto the next thing, right, and you know, he's going to have to ultimately figure out you know, you know, I mean, look at all the money that was spent and look at the vote that he got, and you have to just have to realize that, you know,
like I said, oatmeal without the brown sugar. There's nothing sweet about it. It's just really boring. And and I've not met him in person, but based on your short description of him, it's not very impressive.
Gavin Newsom did not endorse a candidate for governor this time around. However, he did un He had a classless response last night. I don't know if you saw it. This kind of got lost in the noise, but through his spokesman, Isy Gardone, he put out a statement put out a tweet where he slammed some of the Democrats who lost the election last night, including Katie Porter, Met Mahon,
and Antonio Vieregosa. The tweet said, quote, the candidates for governor who spent the most time attacking Gavin Newsom were the first to concede. Bye bye. Yeah.
Well there you go, right, So Gavin Newsom got the one thing he wanted. I mean, at the end of the day, he wanted somebody who's running for governor, and who will be governor who will be reticent to run against Newsom's record. He doesn't need somebody while he's pursuing the White House to have a governor in California who was saying, Hey, I can't get my job done because Newsom screwed it up on his way out the door, right, he can't have that. And Steyer would have done that
in a heart. Syrah would have said, oh, you know what, you know Newsom, you know doesn't Newsom was terrible. I'm going to fix everything. But Sarah is not wired that way. But Sarah will surround himself with Newsom's people. As a matter of fact, Newsom's political people already went to Bessara to help lift him. You know, yes, the kind of like with Swallwell. I don't think the governor endorsed Swowell,
but he sent his people to elect Swalwell. And then when Swallwell imploded, some of his people then went over and helped Besera. Because of course it's all one big intra, you know, mural. They all incestuous, you know thing over there. And so I think, you know, Newsom's pretty happy right now because Besarah laying low. You know, one of the features of laying low which I think they will figure out the uh. I don't think they will call it
the Phillips strategy. I'll call it the Phillip strategy. Uh. That Phillips strategy works great because he wants he will want to be low key to get elected, and Gavin Newsom wants him to be low key because Gavin Newsom wants to take full advantage of the last seven months of his governorship to still be the governor of California to delegates of a national convention for Democrats that is two years hidden, so you know, so you know, Gavin Newsom could It's hard for me to think about somebody
that was running for governor that would have been a better choice for Newsom than Xavier Versera is it or Xavier? It's probably Faber.
I've always pronounced it Javier, but when you look at it on paper, it reads like Xavier. Yeah.
Well, I guess you know, maybe somebody who's listening to this program can call in and let us know, because I don't think Psarah is going to call either one of us to let us know.
There used to be a player for the Seattle supersonic McDaniel.
John, we could start right now, Xavier Hobbyer, whatever your name is, we invite you to come on to the John Phillips Show talk about your candidacy, and we could start off by telling us how to say your damn name.
Rub it. Well, we know that Joe Biden could have pronounced it right.
For Secretary of Health and Education is over. I nominated Hobbier Bakaria.
Well, there you go, and apparently he never learned his name the entire time the man worked for him. John Fleischman, publisher of sodesitmatter dot com on California politics. You can get them online at sodoesitmatter dot com. John Fleischman, thanks so much for stopping by.
Thanks for all the great things you say and do.
My friend eight hundred two two two five two two two is the telephone number one eight hundred two two two five two two two. If you'd like to email the show, you can do so at Johnny Don't Like Show gmail dot com. That's Johnny Don't Like Show at gmail dot com. And Randy. If you missed yesterday's program where we previewed the election, we talked about the mayor's race.
The governor's race, and you want to find out just exactly how spot on or how off our predictions were, you can go back and listen and find out.
I wonder if anyone's actually going to do that. Search for the John Phillips Show. Wherever you get your podcast, whether it's the Apple podcast app, iHeart Spotify, search for the John Phillips Show, hit subscribe. You could download all the episodes. You could also do a Google on the YouTube on YouTube. We're like the most popular show on the Cumulus News Talk YouTube channel, so help us keep it that way. Subscribe to that channel and listen to
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You know you might need it someday. I will say this. Usually people on the Internet don't pass up the opportunity to tell me, and I'm an idiot.
M M.
All right. So we mentioned that Tom Steyer finished third place last night when at least I went to bed. He's currently sitting at third place right now, according to the latest update from the California Secretary of State's office. Obviously, that could change as they take over a month to count all the ballots. But last night things weren't looking good for Tom Styer, and he gave an angry and defiant speech.
Somebody had a little airing of the grievances last night, Tom Steyer.
Clean Energy, Here comes Chevron taxing AI.
Wait did someone just woo Chevron? Sounded like it. I think they're at the wrong rally.
Clean Energy, Here comes Chevron taxing AI. What about Meta lowering electric bills? Hello, PG and E.
Apparently all those companies donated to Bessera.
And he's not happy about that quote.
How fresh for somebody like Tom Steyer to complain about money in politics.
The sugar Daddy himself.
To quote FDR. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me, and I welcome their hatred.
Well, it's not just them. You can add a lot of people to that list, including me.
But here's the thing. Their spending wasn't personal. It wasn't about who I am. It was about what the corporations believed I could do for the corporations. Elections are always about policy. For the corporations, politics isn't about parties, It's about profits. They do not think in red and blue teams. They think in red and black ink. They think in dollar signs and balance sheets. Their priorities and decisions have proved soulless.
He talks about corporations the way Kyle Reese talked about the terminator.
If you know what's funny is it was Katie Porter who hated Tom Steyer with the hot hot hate of a thousand sons. He never really acknowledged her, he never really engaged with her. It's Javier Bessera, who he regards as a corporate Democrat, who this guy hates.
They think in dollar signs and balance cheats. Their priorities and decisions have proved soulless. They're totally unconcerned with the well being of working people, with the health of our democracy, with the very concept of justice. They will support who and whatever they have to in order to usher in the future that is beneficial.
Now, wait a minute, why is it immoral for Chevron to write a check to a candidate, but it's not immoral for this guy to spend over one hundred million dollars.
Someone's got a god complex. I've said it before and I'll say it again. There's no such thing as a normal billionaire. They're all crazy in some special way.
They will support who and whatever they have to in order to usher in a future that is beneficial to their bottom lines. It's why they uniformly backed Trump, It's why they uniformly opposed progressives. And none of that was unique to this race. Here they were just especially brazen because here they were especially scared.
Okay, here's another trick that I've noticed. You notice that words lose all meaning over a certain period of time, and anything he doesn't like is Trump. So the corporations donate to candidates who want them to do something for them, so of course it's Trump. That's what Trump does. Trump
gets behind the corporations. It's bad. And then he turns around and frames Besserah as the Trump in this race, because the same corporations who are donating to Trump are donating to Bessera, So in his eyes, Bessera is Trump.
The dollar amounts are different, but in elections everywhere, the principle is the same. You want to fight for working people at the expense of corporate profits. Watch corporations do everything in their power to stop you.
Usually you spent way more money than the corporation styre.
You know what's funny is he talks about things not like the new Left. He talks about things like an old timey lefty where they talk about the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, which is a real odd way for a billionaire to talk about money. That's why a lot of people didn't really buy it.
Usually they try harder to hide what they're doing, and usually they're confident that.
If they mean, if the numbers hold right now, eighty percent of the people that voted said no to Tom Steyer. And that's just of the people who voted, because there's a lot of people who looked at all those ads and said, I'm not participating in this.
Usually, Dick, I wonder how many people have.
You actually asked if you got a real pull of the vast majority of California's that did not participate in the June primary, and you asked for a reason. Some would say they were too busy, some would say that they're not political. Some would say love Island was on, some would say those Tom Steyer ads pissed me off.
Here's a question, and I think there's a certain amount of people out there that fit that category. What percentage of those seventy percent of the population in California that didn't vote do you think are people who are dead or moved out of state, or are sitting in prison or whatever can't vote for one reason or another, and we just don't take them off the voter rolls because we never cleaned things up in California. So the reality is is that most people who can vot do vote.
I think there's probably some of that.
But counterpoint, no, I don't know enough to give you any good information, but good luck finding someone who does.
Because when I lived in my old house, I got the ballot for the guy who lived there. I think the place was vacant for seven months before I moved in, and then I was there for seven years, and I don't know when he moved out, but I got his ballot in the mail the entire time I lived there.
Usually they try harder to hide what they're doing, and usually they're confident that if they spend enough, whoever's threatening their profits will be forced to back down and go away. This is how working people have been priced out of our politics.
By the way, Steyer is spending money right now on a big texting campaign. If you voted for me, check that your ballot was counted.
Oh yeah, because he's going to start to cure ballots.
This is how the system text itself. And I'll be the first to say it. That isn't how the system should work. You shouldn't have to be a billionaire to run on single payer.
Do you think Katie Porter is throwing things at the TV as she's watching this at that bar in Newport Beach?
I think she might need to go to Best Buy this weekend. Out of my shot, you think she picked up our listener again. If you bring it up, people are just gonna ask for us to play it, or to.
Challenge monopolies, or to call out a corrupt system when you see it. But the system depends on its ability to crush anyone who tries. And I know that there are many many people activists and organizers and ordinary working people who are out there today and who have been out there for decades saying and doing all of these things brilliantly and fearlessly. Those are the people I can this race for. Those are the people I'm in this race.
With But instead of propping up one of those people to run for office, you chose you the running the president and spending one hundred million dollars there, the total lack of charisma, the billionaire bravado. Nobody's buying what Tom Steyer is selling, and he's been trying to sell himself on the TV over and over and over again for the past seven years.
Do you think he just goes away after this or do you think he's going to be like Katie and just keeps running for office until he drops dead.
Well, he's never going to run out of money, as much as his consultants try to make that happen. I mean, what's disgusting about wealth at his level is the two hundred and thirty million dollars that he's spent on this campaign. He'll probably make back by the end of the year.
Oh yeah, this is nothing for him. He's indulging himself in his hobby and it's not costing him a lot to do it.
The corporate just came at us with everything they had and we didn't back down.
Why don't you go buy PG and E. They're a publicly traded company. He probably could Helly if you really want to break up pg and E, take your billions of dollars, get a couple of friends with you, put through a hostile takeover, and take it apart piece by piece like you're doing CBS.
We were absolutely uncompromising in our values and our vision for California, and together we've scared the hell out of the corporate interest who are used to getting it their own way.
We exposed what do you think the crowd is, like? What's the demo breakdown of the people that showed up to Styers rally.
It's probably hardcore lefties and people he's paying to be there.
We exposed the fact that their power.
I mean, like his influencers, that's exactly what I'm referring to.
We exposed the fact that their power depends on a system that is fundamentally corrupt. We showed with clarity and conviction that we do not have to accept the system they've built as inevitable. We proved something FDR said almost a century ago that government by.
PGD was in bankruptcy. Seven years ago. He could have bought them for a song, that.
Government by government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob and We showed that a better California is possible, and that we know what it looks like, and we know how we'll get there together, day by day, vote by vote, because together all of us in this room believe in a not so radical idea California can work for working people.
No, it can't, not with your plan.
Because we believe in a California where we have single payer health care, A California where we have clean air to breathe in, water to drink, A Califerni yet where young people can.
Did you just say California? He did?
A Califerniet where a califern Yet, where young people can imagine a future in the place they grew up.
They already moved to Texas well, Some of them moved to Arizona.
A California where corporations and billionaires who got rich here.
What do you want, the dry heat that's gonna make you miserable or the human heat that's gonna make you miserable.
A California where corporations and billionaires who got rich here and then pulled the ladder up behind them do pay their fair share?
Are actually are you paying your fair share? Tommy? I love how defensive he gets. Whenever anyone asked him about that.
He said on the debate stage, me paying more taxes won't do anything.
Do pay their fair share and are actually proud of their contribution to the twenty four century society.
That's us, I'm telling you right now, for the people that are running the campaign for that wealth tax. If you want that thing to pass, even though it's a stupid idea and the money all goes to the SEIU, if you want it to pass, just put up billboards everywhere that say, help take Tom Steyer's money away from him.
Plutigh tom Steyer, vote for this that the rest of them.
If you would like to never see Tom Steyer waste money on advertising again, vote to take away his wealth. You almost convince me with that one.
That the rest of the world admires. That's what we're fighting for together, and that's what the corporations are hell bent on stopping because they know what we know. If we win, corporations lose. I've always been an optimist, and tonight.
You sound like one. Every time I see him on TV, he's like Donald Duck with pants on. He's just one big oil and cauldron. Of rage.
You know, there is a certain point where money does allow you a certain level of comfort, which can lead to happiness. But for as rich and as wealthy as this guy is, he may be one of the angriest people I've ever seen.
He's just pissed off. Twenty four to seven.
I've always been an optimist, and tonight I remain an optimist. None of this is far off. These dreams are not too big.
All right.
Tom Steyer spent two hundred and thirty million dollars on this campaign. How big of an island could you have bought for that and had staff work on it for the rest of your life? He probably could have bought a Wahoo. I think Zuckerberg already bought half of that.
I thought it well. Oprah brought Maui after they burned it down.
When you look at how much the billionaires have bought up Hawaii, you will also probably vote yes on that wealth tax.
All right, Tom Steyer kids, not a happy man, not a happy camper. Let's go to market, milpitaes Mart. Hello, Oh hi, I.
Really like your show. It's a nice mix of sarcasm and humor. I just wanted to say I held out to the last minute to vote. It was a day before the Bianco Hilton thing. I was really thinking about doing the Bianco thing, like you had mentioned a few weeks ago, But at the last minute, when the poll started to close, I was really worried that Hilton might get bounced out by the surge of these other guys. So I ended up with Hilton. What happened to Bianco? Why did he fade so quickly?
I think a lot of people did what you did. I think the poll started to tighten at the end, and people said, if we don't vote for Hilton, then Hilton may not make the November ballot. Now, my point of view was whether you make the November ballot or not, the point is to win the seat, and you should give yourself the best position or put yourself in the
best position to win the seat. And the way I see it, and I hope I'm wrong, but the way I see it is the only way the Republicans are going to win the seat is to have a democratic lockout. So that's why I went with that until the bitter end. Now, I also went into it of the belief that Hilton was always going to make the November ballot because Donald Trump, while he's not popular in California with the overall population,
is very popular with Republicans. So the moment that he endorsed Steve Hilton, there's a certain number of votes that are baked into the cake with that endorsement, probably enough, most likely enough to get into a runoff. So I didn't have the same fear that other people did that Hilton would get blown out and he wouldn't make the runoff.
What I was what I was interested in was getting Bianco up because he was always pulling in those low double digits, lifting him up to the point to where he could get on the November ballot and then one of the two of them could be the next governor.
Do you think, realistically, now that there's a Democrat with what is it sixty forty in California, sixty five thirty five, is there a real, real chance that a Republican versus a Democrat really has a chance here.
It's remote, but certain things would have to break Hilton's way be Sarah would have to get indicted, But Sarah would have to have a number of gaffes that caused Democrats to question his competence or his ability to do the job. I believe right now we're in such partisan times where he could do almost anything and you'll get them to vote for him, which is why I think it's such a tough pot for Hilton in a Republican versus Democratic matchup, and that's why I was trying to
avoid that with a Democratic lockout. Thanks for the call, sir. All right, if you went away in on yesterday's election, give us a call at eight hundred two two two five two two two one eight hundred two two two five two two two. It's the John Phillips Show.